State Dept. releases another batch of Clinton emails

The State Department has released its largest batch yet of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private server. The 4,368 messages range in subject from state matters to food and what's on TV.
USA TODAY

In a speech to the party's most committed activists at the Democratic National Committee summer meetings Friday, Hilary Clinton cast herself as its standard-bearer and vowed to win the presidential race and rebuild the party from the ground up. (Aug
AP

Earlier Monday, it was estimated "around 150" emails in the release had been classified since Clinton originally received or sent them, according to Mark Toner, a department spokesman. However, that estimate was later brought down to 125. The sensitive information in those messages is redacted.

Toner added, however, that none of the emails reviewed had been designated classified at the time.

Among the thousands of messages -- many of which appear to be missives on day-to-day tasks -- is a 2010 note to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, asking him not to publish 250,000 classified documents. The publication of the documents would risk "the lives of countless innocent individuals," "ongoing military operations," and "ongoing cooperation between countries."

"Despite your stated desire to protect those lives, you have done the opposite and endangered the lives of countless individuals," wrote State Department legal adviser Harold Koh. "You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this material widely, without redaction and without regard to the security to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger."

The last email addressing Wikileaks is mostly redacted, save for a note at the top that wishes Clinton and her family, former president Bill and daughter Chelsea, a "Merry Christmas."

Other messages, mostly from 2009 and 2010, include Clinton's reactions to major political events during those years:

"Needless to say, I'm so distressed over all of this," she wrote on Election Day 2010, when the GOP wave resulted in Democrats losing the House.

"This is unbelievable. Or maybe totally so given the forces at work," she wrote after the Citizens United v. FEC ruling in 2010.

"Can you get me copy of article about McChrystal that is coming out?" Clinton wrote two days before Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned as commander in Afghanistan when a Rolling Stone article published his remarks about the Obama administration.

The release also revealed notes about gefilte fish, Parks and Recreation and birthday and holiday wishes.

Late last year, Clinton turned over more than 30,000 emails she sent and received while at the State Department. At the same time, about that same number of messages that she deemed "private and personal" were deleted by her team.

The first batch of emails was made public in May, and a federal judge has ordered monthly releases since. Monday's release will be by far the largest and will consist of more pages of emails than all previous months put together.